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Mineral-chemical and isotopic studies of Namaqualand granulites, South Africa: A grenville analogue

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Abstract

The northwestern part of South Africa and southern South-West Africa/Namibia is amongst the most extensive granulite terranes in Africa. This work reports the results of electron microprobe studies of minerals from two-pyroxene, cordieriteorthopyroxene (-gedrite) (-sapphirine) and garnet and/or cordierite parageneses from Namaqualand, in the N.W. Cape Province of South Africa. Determined PT conditions of prograde metamorphism based on thermodynamic calculations are 800°–900° C and ca. 6–7 Kb; and it is argued that rocks of unusual composition, notably cordierite-orthopyroxene rocks, are restites after the extraction of granitic liquid from former argillites. This interpretation is consistent with previously published data on similar rocks, and with McCarthy's (1976) suggestion of extensive partial melting in the quartzofeldspathic rocks in the area.

U-Pb isotopic studies of some 50 zircon fractions have been carried out and confirm an age of 1,200 m.y. for the high-grade regional metamorphism; but certain zircon populations record inherited ages greater than 1,700 m.y. Garnet-sillimanite rocks that contain retrograde kyanite reflect PT conditions of 550°–650° C and ca. 7–8 Kb; and constituent biotite has yielded a K-Ar age of ca. 950 m.y. These data, the regional stratigraphy and structure, and the mineralisation are compared with data from the Grenville Province of Canada. Notable similarities are the possible basement-cover relationships, and the calendar of tectonothermal events, while differences include the important stratiform base-metal mineralisation in the supracrustal sequence in Namaqualand, and the Cu-mineralisation in hypersthenebearing intrusives, emplaced some 1,100 m.y. ago, that are areally, and believed to be genetically, related to the granulite facies metamorphic regime.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Tom N. Clifford & Terence S. McCarthy

  2. Montan-Universität, Leoben, Austria

    Eugen F. Stumpfl

  3. National Physical Research Laboratory, C.S.I.R., Pretoria, South Africa

    Alwyn J. Burger

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, UK

    David C. Rex

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  1. Tom N. Clifford
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Clifford, T.N., Stumpfl, E.F., Burger, A.J. et al. Mineral-chemical and isotopic studies of Namaqualand granulites, South Africa: A grenville analogue. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 77, 225–250 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00373538

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